The U.S. government is not planning a systematic easing of sanctions on Venezuela after an initial round allowed partners of state-run oil firm PDVSA to resume taking oil for past debts, a State Department official said.
In November, Washington issued a six-month license allowing Chevron Corp (CVX.N) to expand operations and export Venezuelan oil to the United States.
Eni (ENI.MI) and Repsol (REP.MC) also began taking Venezuelan crude for debt with U.S. approvals, This year, Trinidad and Tobago received a U.S. nod to jointly development an offshore natural gas field with Venezuela.
“There have been limited changes in specific sanctions and we can take them back in any moment,” Fernandez said.
The Chevron license came after Maduro’s administration resumed political talks with the opposition in Mexico last year, while the Trinidad authorization was requested by Caribbean countries to secure future energy supplies.
“I can categorically say that we don’t have any plans to liberalize further on Venezuela,” said Fernandez, stressing: “In this moment, there are no plans to ease the sanctions more.”
Source: Reuters
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